You are right, mercury vapors are odorless and therefore
you can poison yourself without knowing it. No danger for
that to happen with bromine :-)

You can purchase indicator strips with a danger sign which
gets colored after being exposed to mercury vapors. People
in the industry normally wear these on their lab coat to
know if they've been exposed, but you can also hang these
in your daguerreotype darkroom and that way you'll know if
you have any leak.

gregory

> Back to hazards: Mercury is definitely extremely bad for you, and demands
> that you treat it with vigilance and respect. In the Dag process, it's
> also the sneaky one. You can smell the halide vapors, and as long as you
> haven't locked yourself into a closed space, when you do smell
> them you can
> just walk to fresh air and safety. Mercury fumes are more or
> less odorless
> (so I'm told -- I've never even considered finding out for myself), so you
> won't get any warning if you have a problem with your setup. So while Bob
> and I disagree on some points, it's only a matter of degree.
Received on Tue Aug 24 06:31:34 2004